A great shame that Alex Lloyd has no race seat in a major series. He raced competitively with Lewis Hamilton here in the UK and his family had to resort to re-mortgaging their home to fund a ride in the US...

CART specs - Never going to happen. People in all series need to realise this isn't the 90s anymore.

Doesn't stop the rose-tinted goggles on every single Indycar video on youtube, and on web forums. That said, I would like to see more powerful engines in the near future and some chassis competition as well.

I think chassis 'competition' would just upset the competitive balance we have amongst the teams. I don't know how last the current system will stay this way, but putting teams in different equipment won't make the racing better in my view.

More power might work, but so would less aero. Or shitty tires. Or whatever. Changes that would have the same effect but not lead to more DNFs or costs for the engine manufacturers who are already taking losses to support the series.

I think chassis 'competition' would just upset the competitive balance we have amongst the teams. I don't know how last the current system will stay this way, but putting teams in different equipment won't make the racing better in my view.

Possibly, but weren't the teams complaining about the Dallara costs? That and I've heard people dislike the "spec series racing" (though I don't think they quite appreciate the difference between Penske\Ganassi and the rest).

More power might work, but so would less aero. Or shitty tires. Or whatever. Changes that would have the same effect but not lead to more DNFs or costs for the engine manufacturers who are already taking losses to support the series.

I understand that and I've said the same elsewhere - I'm not expecting 1000hp, but enough so they aren't in danger of being overtaken by GP2 cars or drifting back into "IRL crapwagon" status.

A Houston road course hosting the finale? Are they insane? Where would all the tension be? The awesome thing about IndyCar finales is that they always seem to happen on ovals - the road course events on the IndyCar schedule are good, but they certainly aren't tense. It'll be an anticlimactic end to the season I think if this news is true.

California will still be the season ender if they sign up. There is still rumblings of COTA but I don't see Bernie letting that happen. Allegedly all the fans want different body work but the owners don't. I think the manufacturers would have to push this. Curt Cavin has some thoughts on drivers in Indy Star if you want more tid bits

By now I think we know all the silly season pieces, it's just waiting to see how they're made to fit together. RM said in his mailbag that there are a few "outside" drivers looking for seats, which (discounting Saavedra -- did you know that Miguel de Cervantes's mother's name was Saavedra?) probably means Vautier, Filippi, possibly Allmendinger. Any others spring to mind? Surely Alexander Rossi will start to be affected by Indycar's gravitational field, with his Euro open-wheel career running low on revs, if not yet stalling.

Not bad. Keeping most of this year's races should be good for the stability of the series. Excited about Pocono, not just because it's a new oval. I never saw any Indycar at the track the first time (too young). Houston should be interesting. I'm assuming its the later Champcar circuit. I never saw any races at that one either but it looked better than the CART one from the late 90s which was literally all 90 degree corners.

Not sure if I'm that fussed about the double headers. I'm just hoping I'll get to see any of this on TV. All the doubles are street courses. I can see some long Saturday nights for the mechanics.

I'd swap one of these doubleheader races for an oval race in september. It's a shame that there will be a month long break, but if it was either that or ending the year on a street course... Then they made a good decision. Also, Pocono will be a 500-mile race right? Sounds awesome.

Points-paying schedule's even more road course-biased than usual. Good news for Willy P.

Putting the Triple Crown mini-series in there is going to increase the sense of compromise for engine builders. Do you prioritise handling for (short, twisty) road courses and probably the overall championship, or outright power (I'm simplifying) for the media buzz around the three Big Events (even though only Indy's likely to have a big crowd, again)?

Pocono's gonna be a 400-miler, sadly. Mind you, Fontana was going to run 200 laps as well, then they changed it.

Yeah I saw now on another forum that it's because ABC will only give a window for a 400-miler. That's a shame, the "Triple Crown" races should really be all 500-milers IMO. It also bothers me that both double header races will pay the same amount of points as every other race. It's heavily biased for the RC/SC specialists this way.

Damnit ABC you're supposed to be a broadcast partner not a cartoon villain.

I'm sad we're missing out on the Brown University Grand Prix, but on the other hand I'm genuinely surprised that Baltimore's up for a third year. In a mostly good way.

I need to brush up on my post-2001 CART, can't remember the Reliant Park circuit at all. The original one in downtown Houston was a bit of a Baltimore, characterised more by crazy happenings than anything good about the circuit. Rainstorm in 1998, championship leader running into a parked car in 1999, absolute chaos in 2000. And a labyrinthine pit entry. Happy days!

Unfortunately Ed Carpenter wasn't going to challenge for the title so I don't think it really hurts anyone.

Yeah, there really aren't many real oval specialists (read: toss on road courses) left in the series. Will Power has a knack for finding trouble on them but he's plenty quick. It probably does impact a bit on drivers' rookie seasons though, especially if they haven't done Lights.

On the other hand, Mike Conway's probably phoning up AJ Foyt as we speak, telling him to order balloons and cake for his 2013 Indycar championship party.

Damnit ABC you're supposed to be a broadcast partner not a cartoon villain.

I'm sad we're missing out on the Brown University Grand Prix, but on the other hand I'm genuinely surprised that Baltimore's up for a third year. In a mostly good way.

I need to brush up on my post-2001 CART, can't remember the Reliant Park circuit at all. The original one in downtown Houston was a bit of a Baltimore, characterised more by crazy happenings than anything good about the circuit. Rainstorm in 1998, championship leader running into a parked car in 1999, absolute chaos in 2000. And a labyrinthine pit entry. Happy days!

I know it had a very long sweeping curve of a back straight and suffered from Champcar temporary chicanitis near the first corner.

Watching the '98 race from there... I thought the pit exit was the crazy one, the pit entry was straight off the final corner.

You're correct, of course.

Bit of internet research suggests a few things. #1 They've got a nice sponsorship deal with Shell/Pennzoil to secure the race till 2017. #2 The City of Houston found the CCWS race at Reliant Park good value for money, and has been trying to make a race work there since 2010 (also known as the year IRL Indycar sold out to the road course jerk-offs). #3 Mike Lanigan of Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan fame is back in the race promoting business. #4 Mike Lanigan looks like a prematurely-aged Paul Tracy.

Why are all doubleheaders on street circuits? Is it to avoid the 1st race carnage thinning the numbers for the second race? On another note, I"m glad that Pocono is back, I may just attend my first Indy race live.

"Former IndyCar Series CEO Tony George has put together an investor group that includes some of the sport’s top team owners — Chip Ganassi, Roger Penske, Michael Andretti and Kevin Kalkhoven — as well as motorsports marketer Zak Brown that recently proposed the board sell them the IndyCar Series. The group has hired the Midwest-based law firm Faegre Baker Daniels and begun a financial due diligence evaluation of the series."

Schedule good news lasted all of 12 hours before normal service was resumed. That must be a record.

Schedule good news lasted all of 12 hours before normal service was resumed. That must be a record.

FFS, really? It seems like a vicious circle. The more owners screw around with Indycar, the more worthless it becomes, which just makes it more affordable for owners who have too much money burning a hole in their pocket to screw around with it some more.

The only person not denying this story is Tony George everyone else has called it BS

Former IndyCar Series CEO Tony George has put together an investor group that includes some of the sport’s top team owners — Chip Ganassi, Roger Penske, Michael Andretti and Kevin Kalkhoven — as well as motorsports marketer Zak Brown that recently proposed the board sell them the IndyCar Series. The group has hired the Midwest-based law firm Faegre Baker Daniels and begun a financial due diligence evaluation of the series."

So no attempts to go overseas this year aside from Brazil. I was hoping (against hope) that the series might run a race in Europe, is there any likelihood of this in the next few years or are they only likely to look at new markets (eg. Asia or the Middle East) if they run any more flyaways?